Weird Science Chapter Two
WEIRD SCIENCE CHAPTER TWO: It didn't take long for everyone in the grade to enter the auditorium. Soon, the room was packed. No seat was empty (well, we have the biggest grade in the school, so no seat would really be left empty), as I saw. Eventually, the bell rang, and the period had begun. Principal Carton came onto the stage and walked to the microphone, beginning to silence the students. He has tan skin, black hair, and a slight beard. Black glasses similar to mine rested over his eyes, and today he was dressed in a black suit. I noticed a family of teary people (I noticed a hysterical blonde haired young woman wearing a red dress) sitting up front, near the stage. "Students, settle down now, students, please!" he said, speaking into the microphone. Soon, everyone heard him and shut their mouths (we have the most disrespectful, talkative grade in the whole school, I've noticed). "Students, I bet you're all wondering why you're here this morning-" "That's exactly what we're wondering, Bill!" a student screamed. Many kids laughed, and I rolled my eyes at the dis-respectfulness of that student. "Excuse me, but what you just did was disrespectful and rude," Mr. Carton said. "I'll see you in my office next period." 'Ooh's and laughter echoed through the room. Mr. Carton ignored them. "As I was saying, I bet you're all wondering why you're here," Mr. Carton said. "Well, some of you may have noticed that Mrs. Donner, an eighth, seventh, and sixth grade science teacher, one of the best teachers in the school, is not in school today. Well, unfortunately, she has… passed away." I gasped along with the hundreds of other gasping students. Dead? But how? How awful! The sounds of gasps and other students crying erupted in the auditorium. "Yes, I know, it's… horrible," Mr. Carton said into the microphone. "She was in a terrible car accident over the weekend." Was it just me, or did I see tears forming in the eyes of our principal, the toughest man in the entire world? "A few words from her sister, Annie," Mr. Carton quickly said, and thrust the microphone into a woman who looked exactly like Mrs. Donner. Brown hair, light skin… But when I looked closer, I saw that her eyes weren't like Mrs. Donner's blue ones. They were lime green. Annie wasn't crying like the rest of them. She had an extremely sad expression on her face, but she wasn't crying like the hysterical blonde woman. Annie went on to speak to us about her younger years. "When I was a child," she started, "I always fought with my twin sister, Rina Donner. She was younger than me by seven minutes, and I always thought that I could boss her around because I was older. I did so, and she fought back. We spent many years fighting, and I began to question if we really loved each other. When we went off to college, we had said goodbye by… fighting. As soon as I finished college, I got a good job, and soon, I bought my own house. So did Rina. We didn't talk for about ten years. That was until recently, when she called me to ask how I was doing. We talked a lot after that. She died so suddenly, I didn't have time to tell her that I never meant what I said to her…" She looked off into the distance, the sad expression still on her face. Other family members came up and said a few things. Her mother came onstage and said how good of a daughter Mrs. Donner was. Mr. Carton came back and said that Mrs. Donner was the most amazing teacher the school had ever seen. The hysterical woman went onstage and said through sobs that her name was Elizabeth, and that her mother was the best mother in the universe. When she was onstage, things got really awkward, but I think I started crying, too, because I remembered the last thing that Mrs. Donner had said to me… ---- It was on Friday of the previous week, only four days before today. Mrs. Donner was handing back our science tests that we had taken on Wednesday. "Kelsi!" she called. I went up to take my test from the teacher, the test I'd taken a week before. I was sure that I had failed. I studied hard the night before, but I got so tired that I fell asleep right there on the couch. I knew some of the stuff, but not all of it, and I was sure I would get- I gasped at the score. Ninety five. Mrs. Donner looked at me. "Nice job, Kelsi Writer," she said, winking. That was Mrs. Donner's nickname for me. Kelsi Writer. She gave everyone the coolest nicknames (Megan was Meg-O, Becky was 'The Beckster', Peter was 'Pumpkin Eater'). Mine was Kelsi Writer because 1) I love to write, and 2) My last name, Rider, sounds like 'Writer'. So it was perfect. At the end of the period, Mrs. Donner called for me to come to her desk. "Don't worry, I'll write you a late pass," she said. I walked up to her desk, still jovial after that ninety five, and sat down in the chair across from her. "Kelsi, I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you," Mrs. Donner said, smiling. "The last few tests you took, those were all eighties and eighty fives." I nodded, remembering how upset my parents were. The passing grade in my house was eighty five. "This score will bump your average up a bit," Mrs. Donner explained. "Keep this up, and you'll finally get on that high honor roll, my friend." I looked at my teacher. She was very pretty. Brown hair, in a ponytail, light blue eyes, and the light skin. I smiled. "Thanks," I said. "I've been studying." "I can see that you have, Miss Writer," said Mrs. Donner. "How much?" "More than usual," I replied. "Well, keep up the good work!" my science teacher replied, writing out a late pass. "See you tomorrow, Miss Writer." She handed the pass to me, and I took it while getting up out of my seat. "Thanks, bye!" I said, walking out of the classroom. I punched the air. "Yessss," I muttered, walking down the hall to my next class… ---- I came back to reality when Mr. Carton came back on the stage. "Soon after the passing of Mrs. Donner, a former teacher volunteered to teach here in the place of her," he explained. "Please welcome Mr. Nepolotano!" We applauded the new teacher. A man with white hair, light skin, and gray eyes walked onto the stage. He was dressed casually, in a blue collared shirt and gray pants. He took the microphone and spoke into it for a minute. "Thank you," he said, his voice loud and raspy, the sound of fire crackling in a fireplace. "I am Zachary Nepolotano. I used to teach chemistry at 'Lapeer East High School' in Lapeer, Michigan, so I can assure you that I have a large amount of teaching skill. I was friends with Mrs. Donner, and after her death, I felt that I should step up and teach science in her place. So that's what I did. I hope that I can get to know you students for the time that I'm teaching here at Henting Middle School." He kept on speaking, and I noticed that his eyes were scanning the room very quickly, like he was looking for a student among the crowd. His eyes laid on me, and they laid there for a long time. It was like Mr. Nepolotano was a wolf, carefully watching its prey. I didn't know it yet, but that was what was happening- he was the wolf, and I was the prey. I had never thought about Mrs. Donner that much until that very day. The entire day I was out of whack. I answered questions wrong, I tripped a lot in the hallways- I was a mess. But I think Mrs. Donner's death did that to all of us. Most of the school was upset and out of it, and all period my math teacher, Miss Katie, just sat at her desk and cried while the class did worksheets. All period long. It got annoying after awhile, but I remembered that a teacher had just died. Miss Katie and Mrs. Donner had been good friends… ---- The two forty bell rang and everyone sped outside, running to their lockers, grabbing their backpacks, eager to get home. I walked to my locker and opened it. The entire time I was thinking about getting home and training at the Jade Palace with Trinity and Nicole. I was incredibly angry at all the people in the world who had driven absentmindedly and killed someone. Not just the one who killed Mrs. Donner. I ran into Nicole on my way down the stairs, like I always do. She looked like the saddest person on Earth. She was clutching a tissue in her right hand, and a purple binder in her left. The color around her eyes was a dark pink, and she looked mad. So incredibly mad. "Hi," I said. "I hate the world," Nicole replied. It made me step back a bit. Never had Nicole said anything like that. At least, I haven't heard her say anything like that throughout the almost nine years we've been friends. "Which one?" I whispered jokingly. "This one!" Nicole exclaimed as we walked out the door and into the beautiful spring sunshine to our bus. "Teens do drugs, kids curse as old as six, people are lazy and waste money on things that they don't need when there are people starving in the world, and… and…" "Trust me, Nicole, I'm probably going to chose to spend my life in the animal world, too," I replied silently. "Good," Nicole said. "I hate it here. I hate reality." I had never heard Nicole talk like that. She always acted like she had the best life in the world. If she had a choice, she wouldn't leave this Earth. But I think the death of her favorite teacher has changed all that. Caused Nicole to open her eyes and look around at what the world has become. Caused her to start to turn into a young lady. I don't know how Trinity would react to that. ---- We rode the bus in silence, Trinity, Nicole and I. The only time we spoke was when the bus was pulling in front of my house at around three o' clock. "What time should we depart?" I asked them quietly. "As soon as possible," Nicole said. "I need somewhere to take my anger out." "How about three thirty?" Trinity suggested. I agreed, and we went our separate ways at the corner. The girls went onto Lint Court, I went into my house on the corner of Lint Court and Lint Avenue. Three thirty. That was usually the time we chose to meet in the animal world. We had been going there every day to train and improve our Kung Fu skills. Well, we had to go. We're the Dragon Sisters, aren't we? And even if we didn't have to go, I would go anyway. I would go to escape this horrible place called 'reality'. ---- My younger brother, Lance, had already ran inside the house before me and was telling our mom about Mrs. Donner's death. I could tell that he hadn't cried one bit today. Mom seemed sad about the passing of Mrs. Donner. "I liked Mrs. Donner," she replied to Lance. "She was probably the best teacher of yours that I've met. She knew what she was doing." "She was much better than Miss Katie," I replied. "Dress wise." Mom smiled. "Yep," she said. You're probably guessing that our parents have blonde hair. Wrong. My mom has short, brown hair, and the same blue eyes that Lance and I have. My dad has jet black hair with streaks of gray and the same blue eyes as us. I had no clue where our blonde hair came from, until I heard that my parents both had blonde hair when they were younger. I spent the thirty minutes doing a little homework. I was almost done when three thirty came by. Lance, of course, had barely done anything. He gets distracted easily. I put my books down and looked at the clock. Three twenty-six. My alarm clock was four minutes behind, so it would be three thirty. I got off of my bed and looked in the mirror. Ai's ruby necklace was still there. That necklace seemed to give me power. It made me confident and strong. It was like some of Ai's power was seeping into me when I wore this. So I wore it all the time. I closed my eyes and pressed my thumb down on the dark red gem in the middle of the gold diamond shaped plate. 'The Jade Palace in the animal world,' I thought. I felt myself getting swept off my feet. I opened my eyes. My room wasn't there anymore. It was all darkness. Suddenly, the dark color turned to a blue canvas with puffy clouds. In the distance I could see a sun. I felt myself falling. "Ow!" I yelled when I hit hard ground. I looked around me. I was in front of the Jade Palace in the animal world. I smiled through the pain. Seeing the Jade Palace always made me smile. Because I know that there's another place away from reality that I can escape to. I heard familiar screams coming from above, and I looked up. At first I saw nothing, but then, two tiny figures appeared, falling. Trinity and Nicole yelled when they hit the ground next to me. Trinity looked over at me. "We really need to find a less painful way to get here," she said. I nodded. "Agreed," I replied.